I like people who are powerful, confident, and fearless. Balmain is about an attitude. I think if Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor were alive, they would definitely be part of the Balmain crew.

I'm always trying to understand who I want to be, what I want, what I dream of. When I was a kid, I was really worried that my parents were going to bring me back to the orphanage. I was scared of tomorrow, scared that I was going to be abandoned again. So I tried to enjoy every minute of my life because maybe tomorrow wasn't going to happen. I think I live the same way today: scared of tomorrow. For someone who is considered a party boy, a guy who just has fun and drinks champagne, I'm really tortured.

What makes me sad in fashion is that everyone is looking for trends. A trend is one thing. Timeless is another. In 20 years, I've seen so many trends. It makes me sad when people go for the trend versus quality or vision. Or when people wear something so basic just to make sure they're considered cool, like a white t-shirt.

Kanye West is inspirational. He expresses such a strong vision beyond music, beyond fashion - it's art. He sn't afraid to push boundaries and be provocative.

Being part of what I call the "click" generation - where everything has to be fast and revolutionary and you just want more, and it's about likes and consuming - I want to bring new things to the table. A lot of designers say they're scared or overwhelmed because everything moves so quickly now. I think it would be scarier if it was too slow. I want to go fast.

I wish there were more young people in the big houses, but sometimes it's really hard for them to believe in the youth because they go for what's the most expected.

We can use our art to become political, to become something you want to talk about. We make clothes, but we have the chance to change a generation as well. We have to remember that fashion changed the roles of men and women: When Yves Saint Laurent was putting pants on a woman, he was not only doing that - he was assuming the fact that a woman can wear pants like a man. It's all the codes that I think fashion pushed so much to change the world, and today it's what I'm trying to do in my own way.